I just watched a movie in which someone more or less says "Oh yeah, with him dead, you want me hacking the computer" My question: to what extent can I use this construction? Is it grammatically right to say "with them mad at me, I wanna do it"?
2 Answers
This is a verbless clause as complement to with where with is followed by subject + predicate, but with no verb in the predicate (CaGEL p1267). It is also possible to use without as head of the PP:
They were wandering around [without any clothes on]
With and without do not license finite complements, but non-finites are found in addition to verbless forms:
Without her realising it, Fabia's thoughts drifted back to the Gloucestershire home
Without anything said, Tuathal turned in the saddle and held up a flat palm for silence
The predicate could be a gerund-participial, a past participial, NP, PP or AdjP.
-
1What about with his being dead instead of with him dead? Commented May 13, 2020 at 4:29
-
2@Fadli Sheikh The difference would be between subject + predicative complement, and subject + gerund participial. They are both allowed in this construction. The meaning is pretty much the same with being dead taking a more internal view of the situation.– DW256Commented May 13, 2020 at 4:57
-
These are all gerunds, though they often delete auxiliary being or having. It can be put back again without changing meaning, though: without having any clothes on, without anything being/having been said. Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 21:11
with + person or pronoun or object + past participle or adjective or noun is an idiomatic usage.
Merriam Weber says this:
c—used as a function word to indicate a result attendant on a specified action
got off with a light sentence
Except in the OP's example, there is the addition of a past participle, so I am calling that idiomatic. But all of those uses are about "a result attendant on a specified action".
- With them gone, we could do the work.
- With John's leaving, there was now a problem.
- With the car stolen, we could not get to work.
- With the house painted, we all felt better.
All those could be stated as Given that x:
Given they left Given that John left Given that the car was stolen Given that the house was painted.